- I believe steal was a previous administration

n/t

That's a great point, reform4, especially since county engineering has been essentially deputized to enforce Clean Water Act regulations. Often they are the first or only government agent involved in projects that can cause siltation, deforestation and other damages that can be avoided. They are also in a position to prevent damage before it happens, a luxury state and federal agencies only get on larger proposals, most of the time.

Heh. You could put an eye out!

The county mayor doesn't govern, he's an administrative officer and offers financial direction for the county government. It's really not much of a job, but Ragsdale looked to gin the job up such that he would have something to talk about while he laid his plans to run for governor. He usurped all of the political capital from the county commission and elected office holders with help from the Tennessee Supreme Court and immediately wasted all of it and squandered millions of county taxpayer dollars making friends with his expected downstream political allies.

Burchett doesn't have to govern, the job doesn't require governing, it requires administrative duties, being the tichular head of the county government and keeping the county's fiscal house in order. It doesn't require the county mayor to "move the community forward" spout about "JOBS Now!" or otherwise whip up sound bites and headlines for future use in future gubernatorial campaigns. The job doesn't require big black SUVs, an entourage, or police protection/escorts, that was all Ragsdale's trappings for his office to create an aura that he was something other than the county mayor. It worked for a while, it distorted the media's view of what the true role really was and when the whack hit the smack, Ragsdale's gradiosity and over inflated impressions of his job and of himself took their political price. Cost him his wife, his future political ambitions, and any legitimacy in the community other than an ego in a suit with nothing to do.